Our new cross-artform show on body image, currently in development.
Aimed at teenage audiences this performance piece is to find means of self acceptance and self love in a world where unachievable beauty norms are dictated by social media and peer group pressure. This has serious consequences on our self image and mental health, causing a sense of isolation, self loathing and loneliness.
The work is fusing various disciplines: circus and aerial, puppetry and object manipulation, physical theatre, audiovisuals and a range of choreographic techniques from contemporary dance, hip hop, movement with shadow to nowadays TikTok trend moves to relate to teenagers.
The diversity of techniques are to represent the contrast between the insanity and superficiality of social media world and the deep struggles of the soul.
Following an initial residency at North Edinburgh Arts in February 2020 the project and Jusztina Hermann was awarded a week long residency at The Work Room in Glasgow 24th-28th August 2021 to work on the choreography and movement aspects of the show.
We are aiming to premier the show in 2023, dependent on funding.
The Creative Team:
Jusztina Hermann – Director, performer
Rachael Macintyre – Co-director, aerial and puppetry advisor
Nathan Johnstone – Choreographer
Nik Paget-Tomlinson and Niroshini Thambar – Music
Tomas Sheridan: Videography
Alberto Santos Bellido – Light / Design
“We are made of stardust. We are made of the same fabric as the multiverse, galaxies, planets, the stars.
We are here to shine, spread our light in search of connection, the brighter we shine the further our light goes, to give word of our existence.
To break the loneliness.
Sometimes I look at twin stars with envy, how they twinkle together in beautiful companionship. Yet even they are light years apart.
There is so much space in Space. So much loneliness.
Sometimes I feel I’m made entirely of darkness. A me shape shadow in the cosmos, utterly unheard, unseen, unmatched and unattached. So far away from everything.
Yet however distant, I’m still part of it.
I must be. A tiny, minuscule speck of stardust of the entire existence.
Like we all are. We are all in this together. Part of the Oneness, the cosmos, living a human experience as we soar through space in our body shaped spaceships.
Twinkle.
Shine.
Looking to connect.
To attract.
Would I attract more, shine brighter if my body was more attractive? If I had even teeth, a different shade of skin, a few pounds less fat on my body or less bones sticking out?
And when these bones will be just bones will it matter?“
